Supervisors to hold hearings on VDOT grant applications

The Mathews County Board of Supervisors will have public hearings on applications for two VDOT Enhancement Grants at 1 p.m. Tuesday in the historic courtroom on Court Street.

The grants would help fund the New Point Comfort Lighthouse Preservation and Mathews Court House Streetscape projects.

According to county administrator Steve Whiteway, the lighthouse grant is for phase two of the project to preserve and restore the historic structure. A grant for $717,700 to place revetment around the island and prevent further erosion has already been approved. The grant now under consideration, for $790,000, would be used for restoration work on the lighthouse itself.

The grant being requested for the streetscape project is a second-phase grant, as well. The county has been awarded $732,000 in primary highway money for improvements to drainage on Main Street and $776,000 for streetscape improvements and some additional drainage improvements to Main Street from Brickbat Road to the Food Lion shopping center. The new grant, for approximately $650,000, would pay for continuing the work down Main Street to Hyco Corner.

All four grants are funded only 80 percent by federal funds, said Whiteway. Twenty percent of each grant consists of matching funds raised by local organizations and provided by the county, coupled with in-kind services from county staff.